For the past few days I have been staying home and tried my hand in making rope. With the whole fey shrine debacle I had enough adventure to last me a while, although I would visit the fairies again if I needed conversation partners. Back on topic I took the inner bark of the tree, grind it down to its fibers with a stone and then weave it into cords. It was monotonous and boring work from which I had to take several breaks to join Sorbet down in the river for some hunting, at least all the waiting around for a meal was exciting.

  At fist I failed at making any good cords and so I started experimenting with soaking, drying and such and have made smooth progress. Still with Sorbet taking care of my meals and the cords in order I still had a lot of time to kill and for that I practiced my spear throwing skill and also my tracking, I would pick tracks from the river and try to follow them down to their nests or borrows. If I could master tracking by the time I started trap making then I would be able to set traps at the perfect location to catch my pray.

  Still soon I grew weary of even that and decided to turn my gaze to greater heights. That’s right the mountain on the foots of which I decided to set my base in was the next target of my conquest. Armed with my spear and a snake around my neck I started my trek upwards the mighty spear working as a convenient walking stick. It was evident that this forest had a lot more to offer than I first gave it credit for so getting a birds eye view of it would prove to be a valuable experience.

  The trees got shorter and the bushes more plentiful the further up I went, so did the large rocks and various lichens on them. Until one point where the trees stopped completely and only bushes remained. I continued climbing until my eyes fell above the tree line and I could see the whole wide forest. Yeah everything was a deep green as far as the eye could see, I didn’t expected all that much there, what I was looking forward to was the view from the top. I may have called a mountain previously but looking at it now it was more like a hill, a very manageable hill at that.

  Walking next to the source of the river I had plenty of water to go around. I followed that waterway all the way to its beginning, seeing how a river could start from such a small source inspired me. Maybe even I, small and unknown, as I am could achieve something great in this life. Still leaving the river behind I continued my trek entering truly rocky terrain. No longer it was a peaceful walk but a true climb upwards as I had to consider every step and its consequence. Still with enough determination and guts I prevailed and passed the rockiest part of the hill.

  Finally reaching the top of the hill I let out a liberating howl at the top of my lungs. Damned be anything that might hear me, I was queen of the world for that one moment. After I was done enjoying the climb of mount Signy I took a look around me, I still saw green tops as far as the eye could see in most directions. In the direction of the river I saw the forest ending and a village sitting at the edge of it, beyond the village and the farmlands I saw plains extending far and wide.

  Maybe I should pay a visit to the village, it would be easy enough if I followed the river. I was curious as to what type of creature was inhabiting it. It didn’t looked of goblin origins neither did it look like a stone age settlement that humans inhabited. It had a proper wooden wall surrounding it and the houses inside seemed to be made out of stone, wood and hay. At least that’s what it seemed to be like from such a distance. On another part of the forest I thing I saw the clearing were the humans were performing their ritual, it was closer than I wanted but I’ve already settled down, I wasn’t going to leave over it.

  Outside of those two features I didn’t saw any other points of interest and with nothing to do on top of the hill I quickly started my descent. Getting down felt faster, despite struggling even more at the rocky part and always having to mind my pace. Still I returned to my base of operations without an issue, satisfied that I conquered mount Signy. I went back to making rope, since some strands that I had left out had dried. I was feeling it with every attempt I was getting closer and closer to making rope and if I made rope I could also make thread.

  Then with said thread and the leather I was hoarding I could make a waterskin. And with a waterskin on my person I could extend the area I could travel tremendously since I wouldn’t have to rely solely on the river for water. Still the leathers I was hoarding had shrunken to almost unusable level, this was why it was important to stretch them as they dried, but with rope I could stretch them all I wanted. Yes this was the life, I didn’t had to worry about food with Sorbet around, I didn’t had to worry about water with an entire river so close by, all I had to do was focus on my crafts, training and maybe build a better shelter since the insulation had started to rot.

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  A few days had passed since the day I climbed the mountain. I felt like I was going insane, doing the same thing every day. Which was weird since back when I worked for the tribe I could do the same work every single day without complaint. Maybe I was crazy back then, maybe I was crazy even back when I was a human for having the same routine the majority or my life. Maybe running into the wilderness made me feel sane for the first time and now once again I was losing my sanity due to routine. What a dread.

  I went back to the fairies to maybe fish more information about the fey sight out of them but they were quite tight lipped on that matter and in retrospect quite good in changing the subject. We talked mostly about my life and culture as well as fey life and culture. They also liked listening to various tales from my past life, they especially liked the grim tales and I ended up promising them to come back at a later date to share more tales with them, what have I gotten myself into?

  I finally went past the fairy rings formation which as I later found out contained the fairies into that space and that space only. As they said it took decades for the ring to reach that size from its original position and it will take just as many decades to increase in size. It also got me thinking, who build the original portal to the fey realms? From what the manager said fey can’t really interact with my world so that means that someone invited them in for whatever reason. The fairies I interacted with didn’t seem to carry any malice themselves but why would someone invite the unknown with open arms?

  Maybe I shouldn’t be the one asking this as the one who jumps into the unknown motivated by nothing other than pure curiosity, if I knew how to summon fairies I would most likely fallen victim sooner rather than later. Still that raises another question how did one learned how to create a fey portal and why did he do it in the middle of nowhere, the fey portal stood in the opposite direction of the village so I couldn’t say that any of the made it so then who? Maybe it was a hermit, here before me, who died long ago and so that’s why the shrine fell to disrepair.

  But in that case wouldn’t I find other evidence of them living in this forest? Maybe it was a passing traveler finding a good place to erect the shrine and maybe get his reward, the fey sight. If there was one thing I was certain about it was that whoever made the shrine and invited the fey into our world definitely did it for the fey sight, I didn’t knew how he got wind of that knowledge and I also can’t thing of another reason to do it. Which brings me to a rather harrowing conclusion, that fey sight is somehow taboo. If you think about it with all evidence present that’s they only conclusion I can reach so if I ever find myself in civilized lands I should probably keep this fact about myself to myself.

  At least for now I wasn’t planning on interacting much with other people so I couldn’t put those thoughts aside. Not that I had much else to think about while scouting the area beyond the fairy rings, there were all the usual signs of life, eaten leaves, trails of footsteps and such, the forest was teething with life, only problem was that I couldn’t seem to actually see it. For whatever reason all the animals were avoiding me to a certain extend I was expecting it but to this degree was simply ridiculous.

  It was as if all the life of the forest was afraid of something, running away at the slightest snap of a sound. Honestly it was somewhat unnerving, at least I had the birds in the tress singing me a calming symphony. And then while I was debating whether I had gone far enough and the idea of returning back came to mind I saw it. Massive footprints in the dirt, so large that I could stand attention in them and an equally giant gait to match, I had to take two steps to go from one footprint to the other. It belonged to a bear, one so large that I didn’t wanted to meet them.

  As I was backing away from the scene I noticed a tree, its bark torn apart by the bear sharpening their claws. Even the markings stood above me in height. Yeah, I definitely didn’t wanted to fall upon this bear so with everything in me I started running away from that place of the forest. I passed by the fairy rings and I informed them that I wasn’t going to visit until winter due to this area potentially being part of the bears territory. The fairies were mad at me but I didn’t left them much of an opportunity to protest since I was continually running while saying that.

  Due to my running through the forest I reached my base ahead of time, collapsing to the ground as soon as I got back. All that running made me thirsty so as soon as I caught my breath I joined Sorbet by the river. After drinking plenty of water I sat and observed the wolf in his hunt. Now that I had the fey eyes I could see a lot more than before, the fey for example but also this strange colorful aura emanating from everything living from the humblest blade of grass to the mighty wolf named Sorbet. What I had noticed since observing his body was that this aura condense itself around his legs when he wanted to jump or run and around his teeth when he wanted to bite.

  I couldn’t do that. No matter how much I tried when I run or jumped the aura around my body remained the same. So either it was a wolf specific thing or there was some condition I hadn’t fulfilled, anyway this needed more research, something that I had ample time now that I was going to bunker down at base for the foreseeable future due to the bear.